GetSlimZone.com

If you think a lower body workout using only cardio exercises on a bike or stairmaster is enough, you’ve been kidding yourself. Strength training will not only help to tighten and tone the body in conjunction with your cardio program, but it will also increase muscle mass and endurance, and help to prevent deterioration in bone density as you get older.

Exercise benefits everyone no matter what shape they are in. You may have bird legs, or heavy thighs on a pear-shaped body, or be in good condition from swimming or running, but you can still improve your health by doing weight-bearing exercises every week.

Since the large muscles of the lower body comprise over 60 percent of your muscle mass, it is necessary to include a workout to target them. In order to work these muscles properly, they require the use of heavier weights and a higher volume of work than say smaller muscles like the biceps.

(more…)

Range of Motion:

Advantages of Free Weight Training

To build strength, Milo the legendary wrestler of ancient Greece prepared for the Olympiad by carrying a newborn calf on his back every day until the cow was full grown.

Nearby, you can bet there was a woman hauling a 30-lb toddler on her hip who must have been watching and thinking … “muscle head.”

Each of us lifts heavy things as part of our daily lives, be it toddlers, equipment, groceries, or a number of things. Resistance training can make you stronger and these tasks will seem easier.

You don’t have to be an athlete to reap benefits from lifting weights. Anyone who is short of breathe when they walk up a flight of stairs or who just wants to feel and look better can achieve amazing results by adding free weight training to their weekly schedule.

(more…)

Ladies, don’t ignore biceps training thinking you will replace your flabby arms with unsightly, manly muscles. You won’t!

What you will develop is a beautiful pair of strong and sexy arms that you’ll want to show off in a spaghetti strap dress or a sleeveless top. Toned arms will give you a boost of confidence and you’ll appreciate the increase in strength when toting the tot, hauling a heavy briefcase, or collecting an armload of garden pots.

And during your resistance training, don’t neglect working on your diet as well, which contributes to flabby arms. Bicep exercises will build the muscle underneath the fat, but won’t get rid of it. In order to see more tone and definition, you must get rid of the fat just like any other area of your body—and that’s done through more cardio (jogging, biking, etc.) and eating a proper diet.

So get started on an ongoing routine to develop greater size, strength, and shape in the biceps and in the rest of your body. Work slowly and with enough weight to grow the muscles safely and correctly. Make weight training a lifetime habit and enjoy those great looking arms.

Losing weight and inches, and keeping the flab off, requires following a time-tested regime of eating less and exercising more.  Here are 5 steps to follow to lose fat and tone up your body!

1. Lighten Your Load: Lift Weights to Lose Weight

Before your eyes glaze over at the idea of weightlifting, keep in mind that it takes just a few short sessions of resistance training each week to improve muscle tone by adding lean tissue.

Weight training helps you build muscle which turns your body into a fat burning machine since each pound of muscle you make burns about 30 to 50 more calories than a pound of fat which burns only 3 to 5 calories—a tenfold increase!

Strength training accomplishes a number of other health benefits too, including lower blood pressure, improved resting metabolism, increased bone density, better posture, less back pain, and enhanced performance in sports.

(more…)

Better Looking Arms:

Train the biceps for size, shape and strength

Is there anyone who doesn’t appreciate great-looking arms? Hard sculpted biceps on men, and  gracefully lean upper arms on women? And wouldn’t you love them on your body?

The biceps, those two-headed (“bi”) muscles at the front of the upper arm that flex the forearm, are one of the smallest, yet most eye-catching muscles on the body. They are easy to train using most any pulling or curling exercise and it doesn’t take a lot of grueling work to see real progress.

Women can and should do these exercises without worry, since females typically don’t see a size increase in muscles from strength training. Since women have up to 30 times less of the type of hormones that cause muscle hypertrophy, they can lift for strength and shape, and not worry about bulk.

You’ve probably sat at a bicep curl machine at the gym and wondered what the big deal is. Yes, the machine is designed to isolate the muscle but, unfortunately, most people tend to let the machine do most of the work. As you brace your upper arms on the pad, and grasp the handles, you’re performing some fancy elbow-flexing to move the handles and the weight. But how much are you really benefiting from it?

(more…)

Love and Appreciate Muscle Fatigue!

Fatigue is the necessary ingredient for muscle growth and a rapid increase in strength. A typical workout will require you to rest and take off a day or two between workouts so your muscles can recover.

For example, once you’ve begun training the biceps and arms, you won’t see a noticeable change in size right away, yet your body is working continuously to increase the thickness of the muscle fiber. A muscle fiber is thinner than a human hair but can support up to 1,000 times its own weight, so increasing volume in the muscle fiber causes hypertrophy (increase in mass), which then allows for more force production.

(more…)

Can you really use ab exercise equipment and get a firm midsection? The answer is emphatically, yes! Like most people, you’re probably a little bit out of shape and the pants are feeling a wee bit snug. Or maybe, a whole lot of snug.

If it’s time to do something about all those hours spent on the couch, and you don’t fancy any notion of doing thousands of “crunches” or sit ups trying to get a flat stomach. Maybe it’s time to take a look at the variety of exercise equipment that can help you reach your goal.

An Ab Machine That’s Right For You

The best abdominal exercisers are designed to focus on those groups of muscles around your middle as the primary target area, and they will also exercise your back – the support muscles of your frame.

Cardio exercising and dieting are also important, but to really target the abs, you’ll need the isolate and tone the muscle group for the best results.

Great abs aren’t just for show. Like most people, you’ve probably experienced weight gain around the middle which is the result of taking in more calories than you expend through exercise, thermogenesis, and your body’s usual metabolic functions. If you want the best results in reducing this problem area, you’ll need some ab exercises that can really work those slow-twitching muscles.

The best abdominal exercises are those that are variations of the crunch which is, basically, what an Ab/Back Machine will do for you.  By doing proper exercises just a few days each week will produce results in a matter of four to six weeks, not months.

Work slowly and with enough weight to tone the muscles safely and correctly. Then you can maintain on an ongoing routine to develop better strength and shape in the abs and in the rest of your body.

Make weight training exercises a lifetime habit and you’ll enjoy great looking 6-pac abs, or just take off a few pants sizes.

How does owning a piece of abdominal exercise equipment help your overall toning? With the fitness craze in full swing, you’ve probably got other machines in your home gym (treadmill, elliptical, etc.) but you’d really like to target and tone your flabby abs and get a firm 6-pac you’ve always dreamed about. There is a variety of abdominal machines on the market that promise the world, but do they work?

Ab crunching

Abdominal machines are designed to help get rid of that excess fat around the abdomen, and many of the exercises will give you a double benefit-they will also work your back.

How? It’s the yin and yang of workout, because all muscles groups have opposing muscles groups, i.e., the back/abs, the triceps/biceps, and so on. Since it’s difficult to isolate and work on a specific muscle group, that’s where machines like an abdominal exerciser help.

Ab crunching equipment can range from the heavy machines to the smaller, roll bar contraptions for the floor mat. (A crunch is a type of exercise that can be done in several different ways and is a terrific way to tighten your abs.) If you’ve been to a gym, you’ve probably noticed that the Ab/Back Machine is usually in use – a lot!

You may notice a few people still on the mat trying to the more old-fashioned it-ups. The problem with sit-ups is that they won’t help your flabby stomach  if you do them incorrectly, which most people do. But abdominal equipment will help you to isolate the area for a serious workout.

If you want to see excellent results with minimal effort, you should check out reviews on the different abdominal machines. Most are quite comfortable and easy to use with well padded cushions, foam handles, and are fully adjustable.

Some ab machines even offer a weight capacity up to 200 lbs. for those who exercise often and have extremely powerful abs muscles. Try out several machines and get one that offers a smooth-moving mechanism and solid (not rickety) frame that will help you isolate abdominal muscles and burn the fat off.

Then enjoy the compliments you’ll get on your fabulous 6-pac abs!

Anymore, Dumbbell weight sets are a necessity in any home gym. If you’ve been pounding away for years on a bike or treadmill doing your cardio exercises – faithfully – but your fitness level has reached a plateau, what can you do? The answer lies in varying your workout by exercising with free weights, i.e., dumb bells and barbells.

Use Free weights to advance your training

Most fitness trainers will tell you that dumbbell exercises are a must in weight lifting. To get an idea of what they can do for you, imagine how muscles work together when opposing each other.

On any given lift, one muscle is contracting and another is relaxing, such as the biceps and triceps when performing a biceps curl with a dumbbell in each hand. Since the tricep must be move as well, the bicep is not completely isolated. Hence, doing multiple sets of repetitive exercises using dumbbells will work the target muscle — but it goes a step further.

(more…)

For many man, a washboard butt means that the only protruding shape on their derriere is the lumpy wallet in their pants pocket.

Guys, if this describes you, then you need to do some work to bulk up. For women, the problem is just the opposite: the glutes tend to run heavy because the butt has become a fat storehouse.

First let’s look at the muscles. The gluteals are your butt, which are comprised of three muscles. The largest is the gluteus maximus, the major stabilizer of the pelvis in charge of straightening the hip joint. The medius and the minimus are beneath the maximus. All together these three muscles help you move your thigh out to the side of your body (abduction) as well as rotate and extend the leg.

Men who have a flat bottom need to follow a very different lifting program than women who need to reduce this area. For a man’s type of body you should aim for mass butt building exercises that include squats with heavier weights.

Exercises for the Flat-Bottomed

If your moon is not full and you want to bulk up the back end, your weight lifting regime should be about doing fewer reps (8 to 10) but using heavier weights.

Here’s a just a sampling of exercises you should consider.

Squats

The barbell squat will aid both glute and quadriceps strength. Position your feet about one to two inches past your shoulder width and lower yourself down, in a slow controlled motion, and squat to a parallel position.

Once you’re in this deep squat, clench your glutes as you rise up to the start position. This exercise works just about the entire lower body, but if your quads fatigue before the glutes do, check your leg positioning to better isolate the glutes. Do three sets of 10 reps, working to muscle failure.

Enjoy!

You can do this with a The Smith Machine ( right) which combines the use of free weights with the safety and control of a rack without the need for a spotter. The Smith Machine has been building better bodies for decades and can get you where you want to be… Bigger, Faster and Stronger.

Stiff-Legged Dead Lift

While standing, hold a straight bar and keep your feet about shoulder-width apart. Keep your knees soft. Slowly lean forward from the waist until you feel a good stretch in the hamstrings.

Then clench your glutes, contract your abs and keep your head up as you rise up to the start position. Do three sets of 10 reps.

Hack Squat Machine

As you work your quads, glutes, and calves, the engineered smoothness of the Leg Press / Hack Squat Machine spares your bones and joints.

To use: sit in the sled and position your feet higher on the platform than you normally do, because now you’ll want to put the load on the glutes.

Make sure you lower the weight a little, to keep from stressing your knees.

You need to perform a deep squat (knees to the ears) to force yourself into a great degree of hip flexion, and then extend out of it.

Angled Leg Press

This machine incorporates a unique 7-degree design to ease the stress and strain on the back and joints. Lie comfortably on your back, position your feet on the bar and press, and extend up.

Whether you work with free weights or on the Angled Leg Press, all of these types of lifts need to be done with what is called progressive overload.

The idea is to push the muscles beyond their normal demands so that they will adapt by becoming stronger and building more muscle fibers.

The result: a rounder rump.

An Awesome Set of Glutes

No matter which body shape you have, do the exercises to some level of muscle fatigue. Feeling a burn or some discomfort is a good thing but if you lift until you can no longer move, you’ve probably gone too far.

If you’re an athlete you’ll benefit from training the glutes as their development will increase your speed and power. Whatever your motives, the glut workouts for men mentioned here will improve muscularity and functional strength for anyone who does them.

Women! Don’t forget to work your buns as well!

Recommended Reading:

101 Ways to motivate yourself and get in shape. Number 43 may surprise you. Read all 101 NOW at Bodybuilding.com!